Greg Dyke, director-general of the BBC, issued an unprecedented public apology yesterday after BBC1 screened a live edition of Question Time shortly after the attacks on New York, during which members of the audience expressed violent anti-American views.

Stan Bloomfield from Squad 18 of the Fire Department of New York is built like a prize fighter, with courage and curses to match. His eyes were red as blood last Thursday afternoon, but that was from dust, strain and struggle, not from tears.